Fiberglassing the Hardshell Rooftop Tent!!

[@PatrickRemington]

What color do you think I should paint it??

[@jrmorgan1212]

I’m guessing you’ll go with white paint if it’s going on that white 4Runner? And it wIll also keep the RTT cooler.

[@GrizzlyPath]

I like the raw wood look tbh!

[@jdnort6]

I would paint it with a bedliner paint from Durabak. They have smooth bedliner paints in some great colors. I think a charcoal grey would look really clean for a rooftop tent!

[@jdtracy]

Do you camp more in the cold or the heat? :)

[@PatrickRemington]

@@jdtracy the cold. I can't handle the bugs in the warmer months!

[@joshwarren6639]

Anybody else go to rewatch his videos for the 100th time and then get pumped when you saw a new one?!

[@craftsmancollaborative]

Some fine craftsmanship 👏⚒ Turned out solid

[@Reaper4367]

Great job Patrick. Your honesty in showing your 'Boo boo's ' is refreshing for this day and age. greatly appreciated. All good things take time, and this RTT is turning out to be quite nice piece of art. Cheers for sharing. Viewing from Australia.

[@johnoliver8833]

Did my first fibreglass job yesterday. Just a small patch job but it got me keen to make a hard shell camper.. came across your KZbin video and found it very informative thank you. Oh yeah I did it in 38c heat I understand about now about tue working time 😂

[@lamoe11]

Glad to see you at it again! Keep up the great work.

[@PatrickRemington]

Thank you!

[@jrmorgan1212]

I only recently found your build series. It’s awesome. Planning my build now. I envision fiberglassing as well with a Barcelona red paint on mine to match my Tacoma.

[@PatWallaby]

I'm in that facebook community too and added english subtitels to my root top tent videos.

[@arlindomartins6430]

Perfect, great job.

[@LilBigfootOverlanding]

I’m stoked to see you finish this build after so long! I know you put this on the back burner bc you had your daughter. Hope she’s doing well😊👍

[@PatrickRemington]

Thank you! expecting our second in July! lots of new projects coming tho!

[@LilBigfootOverlanding]

That’s awesome! Congrats! Another girl or a boy this time?

[@PatrickRemington]

@@LilBigfootOverlanding thank you! we’re letting it be a surprise this time! Super excited!

[@ronbradford5009]

Great video, will be using this technique on my DIY camping trailer.

[@PatrickRemington]

Nice!

[@WotanSkyFather]

It's far easier to make the mat stay in place if you wet out the project fully with a layer of epoxy and let it get slightly sticky before laying on your fabric, then wetting it out fully on top. You have to trim the fabric and be sure you're working with the correct pieces before hand. Also, use a metal fiberglass roll to smooth and clear bubbles. Squeegees pull laterally on the mat while only pushing down slightly, rollers mainly push down while only slightly pulling up if the epoxy is starting to get tacky.

[@esfahan.malark1966]

Perfect👌

[@jdtracy]

Another great vid, I've been following this build for a while now. I'm working on a topper\camper and have not started the fiberglass yet. Never done it before but have watched a lot of videos. Yours is one of the better examples for us beginners. I'm still waiting to see someone do a video on all the messing around you have to do with tools, buckets, brushes, gloves etc. Sort of a behind the scenes of fiberglassing. I'm wondering how many gloves and cups and... I'm going to go through and if there are ways to use less plastic products. Thanks for all the efforts.

[@PatrickRemington]

Thank you! You definitely go through a bunch of gloves and brushes. I have started to wipe my gloves off with rags to quickly get most of the resin off once I'm done and this allows me to reuse gloves at least once if they don't have holes. Gloves get expensive. The cups you can reuse most of the time. Once the leftover resin cures you squeeze the sides of the cup and the resin inside will pop loose and fall out and you have a perfectly clean cup again.

[@ruslangabitov5202]

Thank you for your video and sharing your experience. It is said that for better mixing one should use two mixing cups. Firstly you use one cup and after finishing mixing in it you fill the next one and continue mixing in it. When you use only one cup, the part of the first component sticks on the cup and don't reacts with the hardener.

[@tgmorrissey]

Looks great, nicely done!

[@PatrickRemington]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@breakdownbill1]

I got to pull up the video where you sewed the zippers and where you got them from. I did a marine epoxy roof on my squaredrop camper and it hasn’t leaked or weathered in 3 years. But if I ever get around to doing a rooftop tent I will build the top out of PVC sheet it’s waterproof and needs no prep

[@PatrickRemington]

Nice! Yeah there are a lot of ways to do it. I definitely didn't make it as simple as it could be but it will look good!

[@gregmach8230]

90 degree corners are hard to do. Prefill them with a peanut butter consistency mix of epoxy and bulking meterial of choice to get a rounded inside edge

[@MuskratOutdoors]

I tried to make one of these a few years ago.....it didn't work. My fiberglass cracked and peeled up . I had never worked with fiberglass before, and did it in the winter in an unheated shop. BIG MISTAKE! I though epoxy would cure regardless, but it doesn't. It took forever to dry because it was too cold. After ruining my tent attempt, I learned that not only should the temp be over 50F, but sunlight helps it to cure due to UV light. I want to try again this Summer and will check out you website for sure.

[@MuskratOutdoors]

I just looked up your FB group......I'm already a member! Funny, I don't recall joining, but I must have!

[@PatrickRemington]

That's weird.. What epoxy did you use and what did you put it over?

[@opie7afe]

Could have used table top epoxy as the top coat. It's a thicker viscosity but does not cure as fast..an hour working time atleast..so just do a flood coat over the top and then heat gun or torch it to pop the bubbles then sand and paint or polish...you could tint the final coat as well to get your final color and just sand and polish it

[@patrikrohovsky3576]

Hello Patrick, thank you for sharing with us :) nice work ! Can I have some Q's ? What is main reason I should fiberglassed it as well? To make it more water resilient I guess, but do you think it is necessary, how big deal it is in comparison with just oil and paint in regards of lifespan? Also how much weight it adds ? just aprox ? Thank you

[@ivoneidasilveira5631]

seu projeto é fantástico . estou fazendo um modelo parecido Parabens

[@joshwarren6639]

Would love to know how much weight this added to the tent. Also did you ever add a weather stripping to the tent?

[@PatrickRemington]

It couldn't have added more than a few pounds. Most of the additional coats gets sanded off to get to get a nice flat surface.

[@williamlanglais8895]

The only man doing epoxy with Patagonia coat🤪

[@anthonysteward88]

Has anyone thought of using a golf cart roof for the top/shell/cap for the roof top tent I know it might be a little pricey to buy new but maybe buy one used you could even use it as a mold for good contour/shape for fiberglass Just a thought

[@richardvalitalo3670]

Saved some fg toneau covers & old fg cap so I can choose a size when I build one..

[@tarunKumar-ux9ez]

Nice video

[@mickskinner3493]

You are awesome

[@DB-yj3qc]

Your a great motivation to self building stuff that has been over priced to buy. I started on my awning yesterday.👍👍 Is there more content on the Facebook page? I don't do the facebook thing.

[@PatrickRemington]

yes! It's just a great place to collaborate, get ideas or ask questions! A lot of people have built tents much different than mine. People are constantly sharing their ideas or build progress.

[@jjones243017]

Looks great! Was wondering how you got to the finished product! What type of paint did you wind up using after the fiber glass! Thanks! Gonna start my build in a few weeks!

[@PatrickRemington]

I haven't painted it yet. That will be in the next video but I will be using Rustoleum oil based pained thinned 1:1 with acetone with a splash of catalyst hardener. It works really well!

[@jjones243017]

@@PatrickRemington awesome! Thanks so much!

[@mriggsdesign]

Awesome work! Are those Sliver paddle boards you’re building in the background?

[@PatrickRemington]

Thank you! haha yep! My next build series..

[@joyridaz]

What’s the advantage of putting the fiberglass over the wood? Does the wood eventually become the mold and get removed? Learning a lot, keep the grt vids coming!

[@PatrickRemington]

No, the wood stays but I realized that the wood expands and contracts with temp and moisture changes. This movement can crack the paint and cause the wood to rot. You could also do a rubberized coating of some sort like truck bed liner instead of dealing with the fiberglass.

[@brentsharp8234]

Not gonna lie , i saw new video and felt like a kid at xmas then by the end it was like watching walking dead with cliffhanger ending ( not painted yet) another cool project though

[@davidcoton2925]

Great video, like the last roof top tent. But are you going to finish this one, or leave it half finished like the last one?

[@PatrickRemington]

This is the half finished one. Im working on finishing it. 😂

[@ernipalmer3134]

Grab a glass roller it will help a lot

[@jimmyboy163]

I'm ready to build something as soon as I get my sailboat project done......also, what are the wings for?? Looks like it could be a flying flea

[@PatrickRemington]

haha, Those are Cedar paddleboards. My next build series :)

[@jimmyboy163]

@@PatrickRemingtonlooks very much like the ribs of a wing and the leading edge

[@PatrickRemington]

@@jimmyboy163 Yes, yes it does..

[@richardellis69]

I've never tried fiberglassing, but I'm wondering, is it not possible to use a staple gun to hold down an edge and even tuck the matting into and inside corner to keep it from pulling out when you apply the epoxy?

[@PatrickRemington]

Possibly! I’ve never tried it. I’ve heard of people using spray adhesive in the corners to stick it down before applying the epoxy. I almost tried that method but was scared of messing something up

[@danielmccaf]

Looks great but normally the epoxy goes directly onto the substrate. As you wet it out, it comes up through the mat giving complete, saturated coverage and an unbreakable bond.

[@PatrickRemington]

That is a way to do it but not a superior way. Thats actually much more difficult way to do it especially for something this larger. Once the epoxy starts setting up it makes placing and moving the glass cloth very difficult and can end up in disaster especially for those that have never done this before.

[@mohammedibrahim.hammood876]

nice

[@PatrickRemington]

Thanks!

[@jdnort6]

So my question is, if you are putting that many coats of epoxy on, why do you need the fiberglass material? what purpose does it serve? Or is it just to act as a base for the epoxy?

[@PatrickRemington]

the fiberglass adds strength the additional coats of epoxy allow me to sand down the surface without sanding through the fiberglass. I wouldn't have done this many coats if I hadn't messed up one coat.

[@fronex1insta184]

Hey Good job, but for the next time you will use a « débulleur » sorry I don’t know the word in english it’s could be « spike roller » it could be easy, it can help remove air bubbles that form , it can leave traces, so in rubber can be well , enjoy

[@CAMEA-snoozy]

why did you use epoxy instead of polyester resin and how much epoxy did it take to cover the top?

[@PatrickRemington]

You could do polyester and probably save some money but I've never used it and since Im not familiar with it I didn't want to experiment on this thing.

[@CAMEA-snoozy]

@@PatrickRemington I am designing a RTT based on your inspiration is why I am asking the questions. I am investigating costs of a foam core fiberglass cover is why I asked how much epoxy was required to coat the top. My goals are: 1 cost less than $500 and weight under 80 pounds.

[@jdtracy]

@@CAMEA-snoozy Epoxy is more flexible that poly resin and more water resistant (waterproof) than poly.

[@szendler]

muito bom

[@timchamilton]

Is there a reason that you didn't add a pigment. It would have looked a lot better

[@PatrickRemington]

I’m painting over it!

[@drewhodge3820]

You would have found it a lot easier if you had use a corner roller to get into those tight edges.

[@PatrickRemington]

Yes, I wish I had known about that haha

[@billywill903]

Why not do several layers. You could do the top then the edges. Then lay another layer over the whole thing. It will only make it stronger.

[@PatrickRemington]

You can do that. Just more resin, weight and cost. It will be good for what I’m doing. You could also do a heavier cloth. You could do 6 or 8oz